The Toul Sleng secondary School is hidden behind a fence
in a quiet district of the Cambodian Capital Phnom Penh
It's been empty for almost 30 years
a silent witness to the agony of a nation
thousands of men women and children were tortured in its classrooms
they were then driven to the outskirts of the city and executed
nearly 2 million people died in the killing fields of Cambodia
a quarter if the country's population lost in less than four years
one man above all was responsible for this secret genocide
he used hunger and terror to control not just what his people did and said
but what they wore
where they lived even who they loved
Pol Pot
Cambodia was closed to the world
and no true record was filmed of his new society
but drawing on his words and the testimony of those
who knew him well, this is the story of Pol Pot's
Journey to the Killing Fields
in 1997 a few monhs before he died
Pol Pot gave a rare and surprising frank
interview with and American journalist
he spoke of the revolution he led and his childhood
I was born in January 1925
I remember this because my mother
wrote it in chalk on the wall of the house
I am the son of a peasant
and when I was young
I used to help my parents in the field
Pol Pot or Saloth Sar to give him his true name
was from the sort of land owning family
he would later denounce as parasites
we were neither rich nor poor
we just made a fair living
we needed some help at harvest time
and we were able to employ our neighbours
to help us harvest the rice and plow the fields
as a child Saloth Sar was a good kind gentle and hard working
When I say this some people dont believe me
we used to swim in the river together
we played everywhere
all sort of games
ever since my childhood
i've tried never to talk about myself
that's really just part of my nature
I'm taciturn. I'm really quite modest
in the evenings Sar and his brothers
would listen to traditional tales of the Khymer Kings
and the teachings of the Buddha
Cambodia was a poor peasant society
most people travelled no more than a few miles from their rice fields
but Saloth Sar's father wanted a different life for his son
when Sar was nine he was sent to the capital Phnom Penh
It was in the streets of Phnom Penh
that saw Phnom Penh the Sar came into contact with Cambodia's other world
the country was ruled by a Khymer King
but in name only the French were the colonial masters
the priviledged were educated by the colonialists in their language
Saloth Sar was one of the privileged
he studied French literature
and history
the revolution of 1789
and the reign of terror that followed it
school friends remembered Sar as an amusing companion but closed
for a talent even then for hiding his thoughts
he was not an especially abled student
no one could recall Soleth Sar showing any interest in the future of his country
and yet the ordered world of the Khmer Kingdon
was about to be turned upside down
the French were engaged in a bitter struggle to hold onto power
in neighbouring Vietnam
where a determined communist army was fighting for independence
Communist Viet Minh Guerillas
have begun to train small bands of Cambodians
their attacks were confined to a few remote border posts
but their cry National Independence
was beginning to resound throughout Indochina
When Saloth Sar was 20 he made a pilgramige with friends to the great forest temples of Angkor
built at the high point of Khmer civilisation more than 700 years ago
they remain the symbol of national pride and independence
the visit would leave a lasting impression on the students
who became Pol Pot
if our people could built Angkor Wat they could do anything
we must revive our national soul and pride in order
to defend the nation
build the country well
and preserve it forever
it was the beginning of a political journey
that would change the course of Saloth Sar life forever
in 1949 Sar was one of a small and very privileged band of students to be given
a scholarship to study in the capital of the colonial empire
Paris glittered with new life
after the austerity of the war years
at first Saloth Sar's chief interest was in living life to the full
but that changed in the winter of 1950
I met some students with progressive views
and I often stayed with them and little by little
they began to influence my views
these meetings would take place at my place
we discussed things
we exchanged ideas and two tendencies emerged
one in favour of a struggle for independence
by peaceful means
and the other
was a radical group that was in favour of armed struggle
Saloth Sar was of the radical view
it seemed to him that the war against French colonialism
was being fought and won everywhere by Communists
the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was honoured
in the streets of Paris
a quarter of the French population voted Communist
the small group of radical students that had met Vannsak's appartment
in was drawn into the party
Saloth Sar was among them
Sar had become a revoltionary
intent above all on the overthrow of Cambodia's colonial masters
in 1953 he decided to return home to fight for independence
he sought out the most disciplined and effective of the groups
fighting the French in Indochina
the Communist Viet Minh
but in his first months in the jungle the comrade who had return from Paris to fight
was trusted with no more than the camp's vegetable patch
almost everyone there was Vietnamese there were only a handful of Cambodians
and for a long time there was nothing for me to do
and after a while they let me work in the kitchen
but really the Cambodians were there in name only
just how dependant the Cambodians were
on their Vietnamese comrades became all too obvious
only months after Solath Sar joined the struggle for independence
in 1953 the French agreed to pull out of Cambodia and Vietnam
but in Cambodia it was not a Communist leader
who became the symbol of national independence
but the young King Sihanouk
the Viet Minh controlled more than a third of the country
but they chose not to fight on for a Socialist Republic
in Cambodia
they made peace with the King
the Cambodians were forced to bury their weapons in the forest
after the peace agreement was signed
I returned to the capital and resumed my work
in the political underground
in public I worked as a school teacher
in geography history and morals
in private in the political underground
I made contact with not just students
and intellectuals
but also workers and peasants
we lived openly as ordinary people but
in secret we were working for the party
it was at this time that Soleth Sar met the man who became
his closest political ally Brother Nr 2 Nuon Chea
he is accused of sharing responsibilty for the Killing Fields
Solath Sar had a certain skill at bringing new people in to the party
he was a modest charming person but he was clever and good at explaining things in a way
people could understand
Solath Sar would speak of this time
as one of untiring work for the party
but there is another
a half hidden story
the man who in Paris helped kindle Sar's interests in politics
had returned home to campaign in his country's first free elections
he came and had breakfast
with me every morning and we talked together and prepared the electoral
campaign of the Democratic Party
but it was not just a shared interest in the election
that drew Sar to Vannsak's
house every day
her name was Sun Son Meli
her mother was a princess living at the royal palace
she used to meet Solath's Sar at my house
at that time she loved him
she hoped that Solath Sar would become an important figure
but any hope Sar may have had for a life with
Sun Son Meli free of revoltionary struggle
crumbled within a year of his return to the city
the winner of the country's first election was Sihanouk
the King had renounced his throne to take part
but not his powers
and he had ensured his own victory by arresting his political opponents
taking part in elections
that is just for propaganda
in the end and election is a power struggle and those who have power
in their hands are the ones who determine
the final result
it was a turning point for Sar
an end to hopes for democratic change in Cambodia
and even more painful was the personal loss
he experienced in its wake
it really marked his life Sun Son abandoned Solath Sar
to go out with Sihanouk's second in command
she gave herself to someone richer and better known
than Solath Sar
the poor revoltionary without a revolution
within a year Solath Sar had married
but a very different sort of woman
it wasn't surprising that he married Khieu Ponnary
because she was a committed member of the Communist Party
and she had been educated in France too
she was the most respected woman professor in Cambodia
it was to prove the perfect revoltionary marriage
the couple began to throw themselves into party work
the risks were greater than they had ever been
Prince Sihanouk had launched a campaign against the Communist Party
he'd begun to call it by a new name
the Khmer Rouge
more and more people were imprisoned
there were more killings
people were bribed persecuted and just gave up
and so our support base in the cities was under siege
Tuo Smout the party secretary was arrested by the security police
they took him to the outskirts of Phnom Penh and killed him
I went to see Solath Sar who was a member of the party's standing committee
I was the deputy secretary of the party
but I told him that I didnt want to lead it
i asked him to accept the leadership in my place
Nuon Chea had ensured that his comrade Solath Sar
would become Brother Nr 1
the police kept following me and knew my name
but had no idea of my postion
but by 1963 it was clear that I could no longer stay in Phnom Penh
and I returned to the forest to the Makee it would be another 12 years before he returned to Phnom Penh
not as Solath Sar but as Pol Pot
at first he was forced to rely again on his North Vietnamese comrades for food and shelter
they had established new camps on the Cambodian border
and were striking deep in South Vietnam
a powerful new enemy
had taken the place of the French in the South
one dedicated to preventing the spread of Communism
the United States
American bombers would fly Sortie after Sortie
in search of North Vietnamese Guerillas
dropping hundreds of thousands of tonnes of explosives
on a country they weren't at war with
over the next 10 years
nearly 150,000 Cambodians would die in American raids
most of them innocent villagers
Americans carried out more and more bombings and
the more they bombed us the more people came to join us
our forces were getting stronger
by 1968 Solath Sar and his comrades had established their own forest camps along the Vietnamese border
their forces were now known to all as the Khmer Rouge
Our leadership or command centre was known as K5
it was located quite far away from any of the local villages
camp K5 was where all the important meetings were held and
where Solath Sar lived
he had his own guards
lots of them
Solath Sar was no longer the first among equals
but the all powerful party chief Pol Pot
it wasn't just Solath Sar but all the leaders
we all changed our names to hide ourselves from the enemy
secrecy was vitally important without it
we couldn't win the war
Pol Pot chose to live apart
known only to a small circle within the party
and it was in this small circle that he began to fashio the new Cambodian Communism
I was in a very isolated rural area
and it was here that my views changed a good deal
it was really what we saw in the country
that made an impression on us
we studies a lot of papers mainly from the Soviet Union and China
we did put some of these theories into practice
but we adapted them to the situation in our own country
the lifeblood of Pols revolution
would be the country's poorest
non of the party's leaders were peasants
but Pol believed they'd risen above their origins by
by purifying themselves in the revolutionary struggle
new recruits to the Khymer Rouge were to follow
their example by dedicating themselves to the will of the party
leadership
to Angkar
they were often locked in a bamboo cell until
they had proven their obedience
and loyalty
from the first Pol imposed a rigid monastic disiplline
on the movement
everyone was required to attend regular lifestyle
meetings under the direction of a senior party official or cadre
nothing was to be hidden from Angkar
one by one those present were asked to confess their weaknesses and seek forgiveness
the same monastic discipline was expected of the peasants
living in the areas captured by the Khmer Rouge
but its soldiers were popular in the villages
if we stayed in a village
we would help clean the house
refill the water supply
my men looked after the villages
and what they saw what we were prepared to do for them
they began to support us
supply us with rice and many other things
at first there was only a trickle of new recruits
in 1970 it become a flood
an unlikely ally began to pull more and more peasants into the ranks of Pol Pol's army
with deep love for his motherland affectionately kisses a handful of dirt he has gathered
Cambodia's former King Sihanouk had been ousted
in a military coup
he now sought to make common cause with the Khmer Rouge
he was allowed to direct his own record of a visit to its jungle camps
the first public glimpse into its secretive world
Pol Pot was careful to remain in the shadows
but his revolution had for now drawn a new authority from the King's visit
by 1974 60,000 men and women armed with Chinese made weapons were
fighting in the ranks of the Khmer Rouge
Pol Pot's forces controlled two-thirds of the country
and even with American help
the new military government was losing its grip on the rest
in December 1974
Pol gave orders for the final assault on the capital Phnom Penh
refugees from the country filled the streets of a city that now numbered more than 2 million people
as the Khmer Rouge began to tighten its grip
those who could fled the city
the American Ambassador and his staff left on April the 12th
5 days later
all effective resistance ceased
the war was over
then suddenly it was so quiet
I stopped hearing the sound of the rockets
I stopped hearing the sound of the guns
I dont see the airplanes
i I dont see anything like that anymore
after 20 years of thinking planning fighting
Pol Pot was free to build his new society
by the new revolutionary calendar
April the 17th 1975
was Day One Year Zero
we welcomed the Khmer Rouge by raising any white material we could find
we thought it was the end of the war
then we were told to move on
Government soldiers who hadn't changed into civilian clothes were just shot dead on the spot
I was scared because I was in military uniform
and I rushed home to get changed
Pol Pot had ordered his forces to take the first great step forward
as soon as they occupied the city
2 million people
the entire population of the capital
were to be driven from their homes
they announced that everybody
the whole family must leave Phnom Penh and
and travel at least 3 kilometers from the city
they said the Americans were going to bomb the Phnom Penh and we would die
i saw people dying in the road
pregnant women
women who had just given birth to babies
sick people forced out of hospitals
some were helped by family members who could push them in carts
some who didn't have fmily
to help and just lay outside the hospital waiting to die
the was no American air raid
just the determination of the party leaders
to begin building their new society
no matter the cost
if we wish to defend the fruits
of the revolution
there must be no let-up
we must strike while the iron is hot to build Socialism
the party must exercise its leading role
with the use of cutting-edge violence
this is the most important factor
the decisive factor
the power that drives things forward
the Khmer Rouge had established check points on the roads beyond Phnom Penh
those who passed through them were
assigned a district where they could
begin their re-education as workers in the fields
camera's watches books
anything that set the people of the city apart
from the peasant were confiscated by Angkar
soldiers and officials in the former government were separated from the rest
their families would never see them again
in the streets the people had left behind
Pol's peasant soldiers were busy destroying
the symbols of a modern civilised world they didn't understand
the old and the sick they found hiding in their homes
were executed
lots of people died during the evacuation of the city
not many people died
later on yes
but during the evacuation they were still physically strong
in reality 20,000 people died on the roads out of Phnom Penh
they were casualities in a new war
one that was to be fought by the party
on the home front
how should we organise our action
it is the same as in war
we must prepare offences for the whole country
we learn this in the war
if the command is strong we will win
the same goes for building uo the economy
the new Democratic Kampuchea had taken
a deliberate step back in the dark ages
Angkar wanted everyone to be a peasant
the people of the countries, town and cities were
to purify themselves through manual labour
everyone had to work in the fields and dress in the same way
but not everyone in the new socialist were equal
the city people were the new people
they treated us very differetnly from the country people
they swore at us and used filthy language
they said we wer capitalists
I must admit that I didn't know how to farm
I didn't even know what a rice seedling was
first in the queue for food in the communal kitchens were the poorest peasants
they were entitled to the full ration
last to be served were the new people from the towns
and there was never enough
food was control
hunger a weapon for re-education
foraging for more food was forbidden
those caught picking fruit were guilty
not just of stealing from Angkar but
of an even more serious crime
individualism
if you didn't follow the rules then you would be criticised and forced
to bend to them
the policy was to make the people be of one mind
whether you wanted to or not
you would bend to the rules and behave like the rest
this lesson was drummed into the new peasants by
Khmer Rouge cadre
in Pol's new society
everything was to be shared
even children
they were to live from the age of seven with
their Khmer Rouge instructors
love was selfish too now Angkar would chose who men and women
should marry in the interests of everybody
they made a statement saying that these two are falling in love
without permission from the Angkar
what should we do
I mean I was there also as cheerer
kill them kill them and kill them
and then the cadres took the hose and hit the man
I can see it today how strong a human can resist to die
when you hit you go back like this
when you hit you push back like this
and the blood is coming from the eye the ear and the nose
and then they unblindfolded the lady
and she looks like a piece of white paper
I didn't know how frightened she was and how scared she was
but then they hit her
and I don't think both were dead yet
and they pushed them into the grave
that they dug in front of the Pol
and then they buried them
I think that they were buried alive
there was only the will of Angkar
those that defied it
were bad elements and bad elements
were taken into the forest
district officials wielded almost absolute power
no matter their education or age
she was our village chief from the Western Zone
her name was Comrade Ode
she was 12 years old and she ran the whole village
if she said you go you go
you stay you stay
you die you die
Pol told his comrades that the purity of their revolution
was an example to the rest of the Communist world
in April1976 his new government held
a parade in Phnom Penh
to celebrate the progress it had made in just a year
the enthusiasm was genuine
the party believed the country was marching into a new
enlightened age of perfect equality
re-educating the people on the land was the first priority for the revolution
more important than industry trade and even money
money is an instrument that
creates privilege and power
those that posses it can use it
to bribe our party cadres
undermine our system
money constitutes a danger
both now and in the future
we must not be in a hurry to use it
Pol promised clinics and schools
but those responsible for building them were
busy in their ministry's vegetable gardens
the new government officials were even encouraged to grow
rice in the city's empty streets
and on its basketball courts
Angkar condemned sport as Bourgeois
ministry officials were so busy
proving they were peasants too
there was almost no effective control over what was happening in the countryside
radio Phnom Penh was the voice of the new society
the people were forced to listen to monologues about
outstanding successes
some scripted by Pol himself
the reality was very different
the party leadership had demanded 3 tons of
unhusked rice per hectare
and yet its new army of peasants was barely
managing to deliver one ton
a camera crew from communist Yugoslavia
was able to glimpse and record something of the truth
it was an extraordinary sight
thousands of dedicated workers building canals and dams for
Angkar but close by rice fields were almost empty
two thirds of the people in my commune worked
elsewhere building dams digging canals
and so on
just a third actually worked in the rice firelds growing rice
and the rice they produced just couldn't feed everyone
a third of the population was sick hungry or both
thousand were dying of malnutrition
and Pol's vision of the New Democratic Kampuchea
was dying with them
but Pol's confidence in his new society
was unshakeable if the revolution was fading
there could only be one explanation
there is a sickness inside the party
now as our socialist revolution advances
we can locate these ugly microbes
they will rot society rot the party and rot the army
they have been infiltrating the party and they remain
it was a fear of hidden enemies born
in the years of secret struggle in the jungle
the leaders of the party were turning on the
party itself blaming it for the hunger in the countryside
some of the people who were in charge of districts
and provinces were our enemies
they were in our party
they destroyed our rice yield
our policy was to feed the people well
and equally
but these traitors didn't follow our policy and we
couldn't control them because there weren't enough senior
party cadres
the leadership had lost control
of most of the country
a lot of it
is that why the purges started of the party
yes that is right
the enemies of Angkar were taken to a former school
on the outskirts of Phnom Penh
Toul Sleng
it was known simply as S21
the state secret interrogation centre
it would hold those who had once been the revolution's most loyal supporters
more than 14,000 people would pass through this
prison in a little over three years
the truck came along this road and stopped
at the main gate
we then took the prisoners from here and walked them
to the registry where the registrar team made
a list of all their names and
then they were sent to Nyem Ens photographic group
in this building here
everyone who arrived at S21 was photographed for the prison records
some of the prisoners were very frightened they were
trembling some were all right but they did not know
what was going on
they hadn't been interrogated yet
I never thought that I would be arrested
but when I arrived here
I knew I was going to die
that was why I begged them to take
care of my family
I was kicked to the groung just for asking the question
Chum Mey was just one of just 7 prisoners to
survive out of the 14,000 that passed through the S21
he'd been working as a mechanic for the Khmer Rouge
to this day I want to know what I've done wrong
that they should be so cruel to me
to kill my family all my children
what mistakes did I make
why?
every day I ask myself this question
the photograph was taken of the prisoners
in their first hours of captivity
are a lasting record of the men women
and children who passed through the S21
normally when they arrested the husband
his wife was also taken
it was very rare for a husband
to be arrested without his wife
if the prisoner had a baby then we photographed them together
once the prisoners had been photographed
they were taken to the cells
this is cell number 1 number 2 and 3
this cell number 3 where they put me
those the interrogators wished to question closely where
held on their own
this was the chain for my feet
they took off my handcuffs and
then the blindfold and then they let
me go to sleep
to move your body over
you need to ask for permission
the guards walked up and down the corridor
if you didn't ask permisson
they would give you a hundred lashes
it was like this every day for 12 days and 12 nights
it was really terrible
children too young to be interrogated were
separated from their mothers
they told the mothers that they would take
their children to the children's centre
and the mothers had to let it happen
my boss Mr Peng
he took charge of the children
his men took them not far from here
and then killed them
they took me for interrogation here
they asked me
when did you join the CIA
when did you join the KGB
they said I had to tell Angker everything
or I would die
I honestly didn't know what the CIA or KGB were
they pulled out my toe nails
the toe nails on both feet
by using pliers to tear them out
on the third day they gave me electric
shocks because I kept denying
their accusations
after 12 days of torture
Chum Mey confessed
everybody confessed in the end
Chum Mey's confession was typed and
carefully filed with his photograph
in the prison's archive
it was and unstoppable tide
every man and woman tortured was forced to give the
machine new names
for some of its files the prison office
ordered a second photograph
when the prisoner had died under torture
sometimes the photographer was called to the interrogation
room while the prisoner was dying like
this man
those who survived interrogation
made one last journey
they were driven to a place called Choeung Ek on the
outskirts of the city
I was the one who drove them to Choeung Ek
the prisoners were killed in the open
space on the slope there
there were grave pits that were already dug
and the prisoners were taken to them one by one
they were told to kneel down and they were hit with
a long metal pole
an axle of an ox cart
after they had been struck
their throats were cut to make sure they were dead
no one wanted to kill
but we had to carry out our orders
this is the killing field of Choeung Ek
but there were other killing fields
200 prisons 20,000 grave sites
the remains of men women and children
are scattered across the Choeung Ek
field to this day
many of those who died here
were among Pol Pot's most loyal supporters
many former comrades of yours
senior members of the party
were purged and lost their lives
not many some didn't admit their mistakes
but others knew and they admitted them in our meetings
and they were accepted
we didn't kill many
we killed only the bad people
not the good
for Pol the purges were a great victory
but his ruthless pursuit of the imaginary enemy within
would lead to the final collapse of the revolution he was trying to defend
there was a new enemy beyond the
country's border
Vietnam
there had been a bitter border dispute
the old comrades were close
to outright war
but in the Spring of 1978
Pol ordered his last and bloodiest purge
this time the blow fell in the country's Eastern Zone
the vital security area on the border with Vietnam
the soldiers and party officials who were expected to repel
an invasion were driven by the
lorry load to local interrogation centres
a hundred thousand men
their wives and their children were executed
I saw these people in a school building
they were being blind folded and shot
I asked the executioners
if babies in their mother's arms were traitors too
I ordered them to release the prisoners
the total number was about a thousand people
but only 600 were released
400 people had been killed before I got there
I told them we need people to defend the country
and if thousands were being slaughtered
who would be there to do it
the Vietnamese invasion began
in the country's Eastern Zone
on Christmas day
in 1978
13 days later Phnom Penh fell
the collapse was total
Pol Pot slipped back into the forest
the long nightmare
3 years 8 months and 20 days was over
and at last the world knew of the Killing Fields
where nearly 2 million people had died
this was the end of Pol Pot's revolutionary dream
it was not the end of Pol
the Khmer Rouge would fight on in the jungle for
almost 20 years
Pol Pot died in 1998
6 months before he died
he spoke to an American journalist
about the revolution he had lead
he was asked whether he felt any responsibility
for the suffering the deaths of
so many of his own people
I want to tell you
my conscience is clear
everything I have done is first
and foremost for the nation and the people
the people of Cambodia
how could his conscience be clear
when so many people had lost their lives
1.7 million people
I'm not sure about the numbers
but for him his conscience was clear
it was our enemies in the party
without his knowledge
Pol Pot's deputy lives a quiet comfortable life in Cambodia
every year on the anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh
people gather at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields
to demand justice for the dead
no one had ever been put on trial
the United Nations would like to call those
who were responsible before
an international tribunal
but until now they have been sheltered
by a Cambodian government
that is dominated by former members
of the Khmer Rouge
the chief architect of the revolution is beyond
international justice but his legacy
haunts his country
to this day